Thousands gathered in Ramallah today for the funeral of Mohammed Halabi, 19, who was shot dead by Israeli police after killing two Israelis in a stabbing attack in Jerusalem. Halabi, from Al-Bireh town north of Ramallah, stabbed two Israeli settlers to death and wounded a mother and toddler in Jerusalem's Old City before he was shot and killed by police on Saturday. Following Friday afternoon prayers at the central mosque, mourners marched in funeral procession through the streets of Ramallah, chanting and waving Palestinian flags and political flags of the Fatah, Hamas and DFLP parties.Halabi’s body was carried amidst the crowd, wrapped in Palestinian flags and held aloft on a stretcher.

Photo by Catherine Anderson.

Following the burial, violent clashes between Palestinian protesters and Israeli soldiers erupted at Al-Bireh next to the Beit El settlement north of Ramallah.

Violence between opposing forces escalated quickly as Israeli forces fired dozens of rapid-fire live shots into the crowd , according to eyewitness reports. Several people are reported to have been injured.

Video footage from the protest allegedly shows an Israeli military jeep running over a Palestinian protester.

The funeral of Halabi, and the subsequent clashes in Beit El, come amid escalating tensions and violence that have consumed the West Bank and East Jerusalem in recent weeks, which was initially sparked by increased restrictions on Palestinian access to Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Today in the West Bank, clashes also took place in Bethlehem, Qalandia, Qaqiliya, Huwara, and Hebron.

Before his death, Halabi wrote on Facebook, “The Third Intifada has begun.” As violence across East Jerusalem and the West Bank shows no sign of ceasing, many believe this prediction to be true.

Dr. Mustafa Barghouti, Secretary General of the Palestine National Initiative (PNI), sees the latest swell in protests and violent clashes as a critical moment in the current political situation between Israel and Palestine.

“The Palestinian uprising that is taking place now all over Palestine is much bigger than what some people think,” he said.

“It is an outcome of a situation where Palestinians feel insulted and humiliated everyday at the checkpoints, in work places, near the wall and deprived of their very basic human rights. It’s also an outcry to the international community, which ignores the Palestinian issue and allows Israel to be impeditive to international law and international humanitarian law.”

With protests and violent clashes taking place on a daily basis, the current situation in the West Bank and East Jerusalem shows no sign of slowing down.

The Israeli military has reinforced its presence in the West Bank, and an additional 200 officers have been deployed in Jerusalem to contain clashes and the growing frequency of stabbing attacks in the city.

This week alone, Israeli troops killed Wissam Farraj, 20, during clashes in the Shuafat refugee camp; Huthafa Sleiman, 18, near the West Bank city of Tulkarm; and a bystander, 13-year-old Abdulrahman Obeidallah, in Bethlehem.

The Palestinian Red Crescent reported about 1,000 injuries in various demonstrations, including dozens by rubber bullets or live ammunition.